1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an aesthetic shelf display tray or carton for holding individually packaged products, especially a tray built with compression strength features requiring less secondary protective packaging during transport.
2. The Related Art
Display trays for individually packaged personal care and other items have traditionally been produced in their final use form. Once removed from protective outer packaging, the trays filled with product need no further assembly for placement onto a store shelf. Ordinarily trays are shipped to the store in larger cartons fashioned with corrugated pads and other protective structures to provide compression strength and stability during shipment or storage. The additional packaging increases overall cost. It would be desirable to fashion a system requiring less secondary protective packaging.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tray or carton for displaying multiple individually wrapped identical products wherein the tray has structures which function to improve compression strength and containment of products during shipping.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a shelf tray or carton in paperboard-form for displaying multiple individually wrapped identical products formed from a single paperboard blank which has panels serving as secondary protective structures during shipping and storage.
A display carton which includes:
opposing front and rear panels;
a floor defined by at least one panel;
a pair of opposing side panels;
the front, rear and side panels having walls of identical height as measured from the floor up to an upper edge of the panel, the panels forming a receiving cavity and the upper edges defining an open mouth, the side panels each including a tear-away section shaped preferably as a right triangle, one edge of the tear-away section being coincident with the upper edge of the respective side panel and a diagonal edge in perforated attachment running transverse across the side panel, and the front panel also including a tear-away section having one edge coincident with the upper edge of the front panel and having an opposed edge in perforated attachment.
In a first embodiment, the opposed edge of the front panel tear-away section defines a straight cut line. Another embodiment features the opposed edge as a non-linear perforated attachment.
The collapsible carton is particularly suited to contain a set of small individually wrapped packages. Personal care product packages are especially suitable for display cartons according to the present invention. One use of the carton is for holding flexible, soft wrapped personal care goods such as a stack of towelettes. Generally a product of this type includes a stack of from about 5 to about 30 individual woven or non-woven cellulosic or plastic wiping articles which may be interlaced with adjacent ones of this article. These wiping articles may either be impregnated with a cleansing fluid (such as water and surfactant and/or skin conditioner) or substantially dry (less than 30% water) impregnated with surfactant and/or conditioning agent actives. Whatever the type, the wiping articles are enveloped in a packaging including a flexible outer wrap of plastic foil ordinary heat-sealed along seams or openings. Typical foils include polyolefins, polyethylene terephthalate (e.g. Mylar(copyright)), aluminum metalized film or any combinations thereof. Normally these packages have insufficient rigid structure to stand alone on a store shelf. Anywhere from 3 to 20 of such packages may be supported within the display carton of the present invention.
Another type of personal care product package having instability is a triangular shaped carton of relatively rigid paperboard construction but being relatively unbalanced because of its lightweight contents. Typical of such triangular packages is Pond""s(copyright) Overnight Blemish Reducers package which delivers a set of anti-acne adhesive dots positioned on a lightweight support sheet.